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Monday, July 11, 2016

Paris 2016 - Day 1 - Shopping

The last two days I travelled to Paris again for the annual Lolita events and shopping! This year I had to travel alone because none of my friends wanted to go or they had different plans than me. And because the AP Tea Party was announced so late (just 1 month before), the hotel rooms were so expensive that I only stayed for 1 night. Usually I stay longer, and I thought really hard about it if I only want to go for one night, but in the end I'm happy with my decision because I was so done with Paris yesterday evening xD

I arrived around 10am with the Thalys train and quickly went to the hotel to drop my luggage. I chose the Maison du Pré hotel and the man at the front desk was so nice and really loved my outfit (I was already fully dressed in Lolita). Luckily I could already enter my room, even if it wasn't check-in time yet.

Then I headed quicky to the Metro and unfortunately I got scammed by one of those gypsies when I wanted to buy a Metro ticket, she used a trick so I could only found out about it later, but when I realized it, I was so angry and sad. For 2 hours I was mad like hell, but at some point I overcame it and could enjoy Paris again.

Some part of my outfit :)

My first stop was Angelic Pretty of course. I arrived a little before the opening time and started to talk with a girl who also could speak german, because she is a teacher for this language. The time flew by and we could finally enter the store. Of course all the amazing Lucky Packs were completely sold-out, but I found the beautiful Shadow Dream Carnival special set for 180€.

It was the only item which had an appropiate exchange rate price (23000 Yen = 180€), everything else was marked up (Strawberry Whip OP for 27000 Yen = 300€, however I bought this exact dress with a shopping service just 2 weeks ago, and because the exchange rate dropped so crazy, I actually paid 315€ for it because of shopping service fee + Paypal fee + shipping, so considering the bad exchange rate, it is currently cheaper to buy the dresses in Paris xD). I also bought the matching socks for my Strawberry Whip dress. Because I spend a certain amount of money, I also got a Baked Sweets Parade totebag as a gift.

I actually planned to visit the Japan Expo after shopping at AP, but I hadn't eaten anything yet and considering the hot weather, I really shouldn't visit the convention with an empty stomach. However the only thing I had appetite for was a crêpe from Princess Crêpe, so I decided to go there. When I arrived, I remembered that Princess Crêpe doesn't open before 1pm, so I went to the Axes Femme store. I asked them if they have any shoes in size 40, and they actually had one pair of shoes in special size 40/41. When I saw them I was really happy because they were really pretty, however when I tried them on, they were to small! They were size 39 at best...

Since I still needed to kill time, I went to the Btssb store. I always thought that the store is overpriced, but now that I was in Japan and could visit the Btssb stores there, I feel even more bad for the Paris store, because it is quite empty and doesn't really get all the nice stock like the ones in Japan :/

Then I finally could go to Princess Crêpe and ate a delicious strawberry whipped cream crêpe. Btw they changed their Btssb decoration into more Manga related decoration, they even draw new pictures on the walls and filled everything with Manga figures...

Afterwards I was just so tiered and exhausted by the heat, that I decided against visiting the Japan Expo, because it is always extremely hot there, and I wasn't eager for the packed trains and long queues either. Instead I went to the hotel to refresh myself and get rid of most my Lolita outfit, I just kept on the dress and shoes. Paris is hell for wearing Lolita, you get comments every few minutes, and if you make the mistake and come too close to a tourist attraction, all those gypsies come to you and make stupid comments, and one of those souvenir sellers even screamed after me really loud because I didn't answered her dumb comment.

After getting refreshed, I wanted visit the Angelic Pretty store again, because I was thinking about buying some wrist cuffs and I also felt that I didn't checked everything out enough when visiting the shop in the morning. So I went back there and took more time to check everything out. Funnily when I arrived, Maki, Asuka, Honda-san and the shop manager were also there, but they looked so tiered that I didn't asked them for any pictures. They were just hanging up the Antoinette Decoration special set there and I was the first costumer to see it hehe. I decided against the wrist cuffs, but instead bought the beautiful Holy Sheep necklace. It would perfectly match my new outfit and I acutally already thought about buying it when I was in Japan. I wished I bought it there because in Paris it was much more expensive, but whatever the necklace is still very beautiful and I will wear it very often, so it will be worth for me! I also got a postcard + pin set as a present, the last one!

Then I decided to visit the Ladurée café, I always wanted to go there but never came around. I chose a rose petal cake and a hot chocolate. The cake was very delicous, but the hot chocolate tasted aweful for me ^^''' Many people love the hot chocolate because it is very thick and rich, but I didn't knew it was made from bitter chocolate, and I really dislike bitter chocolate ^^'''

Afterwards I wanted to go shopping for make-up and my first stop was the Lafayette. However the selection was very small there, so I continued my way to the Sephora at the Champs-Élysées, because I read that it is the biggest one in Paris. It indeed was very big, but the brand selection was nothing compared to London or Japan. I especially looked forward to buy more Ladurée make-up because I loved it in Japan, but the selection there was VERY underwhelming >_<. Luckily I discovered Sleek, which is a quite cheap brand, and could satisfy my make-up needs (I desperately wanted to buy something xD).

I wanted to visit more shops, but someone left a bag at a tree, so the police blocked some part of the pedestrians walk and I thought it was a better idea to go into another direction (btw at all shops you have tons of securities and often you get your bags controlled at the entrace with a metal detector). So instead I just walked down the part of the Champs-Élysées without the shops to have a beautiful view over Paris. I really love the long streets and huge places in Paris where you can look to the horizont. I spend quite some time there just strolling around, but then I got hungry and decided to visit the Kawaii Café for dinner.

I wanted to go to the Kawaii Café because I hoped that I don't get weird looks and can eat in peace, because the café is made by and for Japan-fans, and indeed the staff was very lovely there and I felt very welcomed! I think there was not a single guest which was not a Japan-fan and most seemed to have visited the Japan Expo. I ordered a Burger and a Sake peach cocktail and both were very delicious! I didn't expected it to be that good, but I definitely want to visit it again the next time I'm in Paris.